As it always does, the State of the Union (SOTU) address dominated the media cycle for several days before and after. Now that the period has (gratefully) passed, and the issues raised have faded from the headlines into the background, it is worth taking a look at some of the policies that featured heavily in Biden’s speech, and which have reemerged to become so vogue among both Democrats and Republicans.

Specifically, protectionism.

The problem with central banking can be articulated with just one sentence, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook recently stated:

As policymakers, my colleagues and I make decisions that impact the entire country.

Unlike the local bakery which stays in business so long as it provides a valued service, the opposite is true for policymakers. What the Fed offers is decidedly against the public’s interest, but the public can hardly escape the Fed’s services.

Yearning for Beauty in the Truth of Economic Thinking

We as a human race have a natural desire for beauty, and we as academics have a tendency to get lost in the weeds and forget this. Mises Institute president Jeff Deist has articulated this better than perhaps anyone before him in a speech (“We Need Truth and Beauty”) where he stated:

Thus, the nearly half the adults in America who haven’t saved remain childlike and live in barbarism.

For those who are saving, volatile markets point to a less-than-cozy retirement for the majority. Last year’s beat down of the average 401(k) plan was 20 percent, which didn’t help. But retirement participants are keeping the sunny-side up, believing “they’ll move closer to their retirement goal by ending 2023 with more in retirement savings than at the end of 2022.” We can only wonder what makes folks believe that.

Incredulity. Astonishment. Disgust. Anger.

It is these feelings—amongst others—that describe the general reaction to the revelations of the Twitter Files and other egregious episodes of Big Tech censorship of the electronic public square.

The implicit deal with companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. is very simple: we will look at your ads if you give us a service for free. The deal did not include censorship.

What if America’s elite told the truth?

It seems a ridiculous question to ask. It’s obvious to most of us here that our politicians, bureaucratic managers, and state-associated business leaders hardly ever tell the truth. What use is it for us to ask, “What if?”